Chapter 70 - Devāntaka, Durdharṣa & Durmukha Slain

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Vyāsa said:

1-5a. Then the demon Devāntaka roared to fight. He, biting his lips, fought with Yama. Having gone (to the battlefield) he said the words condemned by all people: “O wicked one, through folly, you do not know the supreme dharma in its proper order. By using one’s sin and merit, it is the master that curbs or favours one. I am created by the Creator (i.e. Brahmā). I shall correct you, since, you, heading towards death, do not know the dharma. Disease, old age, or a slave—none of these is (the cause of) death. A person who is engaged in work, but who has deviated from dharma, becomes unhappy day and night.”

5b-6. He struck, with three arrows, powerful like death, god Yama, who was very mighty, whose only witness was dharma, and who was thus addressed by him; but with three other arrows the righteous one cut them off.

7. Then in the battle he (i.e. Devāntaka) powerfully struck Yama with many arrows, lustrous like the fire at the end of the world. He cut off (these) arrows with (his) arrows.

8. In the meanwhile (i.e. at that time) the two, who possessed great power and valour, who were angry, and who desired to conquer each other struck each other in the battle.

9-11. That very terrible fight between the two continued day and night. Then, the wrathful, best demon, who was possessed of pride and was powerful, angrily hit Yama with a (missile called) śakti Then Yama quickly took up the same śakti and with it powerfully struck (the demon) between his breasts. His entire body was distressed, and blood was coming (out) of his body.

12. Then the very lustrous and angry Yama held a very terrible unfailing staff and hit it on the body of that demon.

13. Yama, filled with anger, reduced the warrior, along with his horses, his chariot, his charioteer, his collection of missiles, to ashes.

14. Then, when that demon dropped like that, a demon, named Durdharṣa, with a lance in his hand, rushed at Yama to kill him.

15. Yama, with a śakti in his hand and extremely fearless, afflicted him, who approached him with a spike in his hand and who resembled the submarine fire, in the battle.

16-18a. That demon, seeing Yama, struck him with a lance only. Then Yama discharged a śakti in the battle. Suddenly burning the lance (thrown by the demon), which resembled a fiery iron-spear, it pierced the chest of the demon and went down to the ground. With his body shattered by the śakti, he fell down with his chariot.

18b-19a. Then another demon named Durmukha, who was very mighty, who had stretched his bow and who had held a sword and a shield, seated in his chariot only, went (i.e. rushed at) Yama.

19b-21. Seeing Yama, he struck him with many arrows in the battle. That god, jumping from the chariot, cut off his head with the ear-rings, and suddenly made him drop on the ground. The army of the demons, that escaped being killed, ran in the ten directions.